The war between Israel and Hamas has a lot of people talking and it has an equal, if not greater, amount of people not talking ... at least not publicly. In the Black/African American community, there has been a lot of the later. Why? That's a question no one individual or groups of individuals can answer as if there is a homogeneous Black community in which one persona or consortium can speak for. But, however, there is a deeper issue within the conflict that some Black Americans are speaking to, and on this episode of The Offshoot, Rev. Graylan Hagler of the historic Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC is talking.

The war between Israel and Hamas is one that needs the attention of Black/African Americans purely for the fact that there is a humanitarian crisis at hand, said Rev. Hagler. Palestinian children, women, civilians of non-Jewish and non-Muslin faiths, along side people in the Jewish community and Palestinian community, are becoming casualties of the war. Though the war is taking place thousands of miles from any city within the U.S.A., any city with a large Black population, Rev. Hagler, said what is happening in Israel could happen in the States, hence the need to be aware and pay attention to what the war is all about.

Land, said Rev. Hagler, is what the war is all about, and land is a topic most Black Americans can identify with. Additionally, he points to extremism. Even in 2023, there are new stories, particularly coming out of the southern part of the States, in which the land of Black people was taken. Hagler speaks to this and much more on this episode of The Offshoot. He provides a bit of history and he draws a correlation to activities in this country ... particularly the Insurrection of January 6.